A little monday morning encouragement...

as i sit here with my morning coffee, i'm trying to get geared up for my full week of school! thinking about some of my favorite songs and the encouragement, love, and conviction that they bring. good to think about over a cup of coffee mixed with a little anxiety. but, what comforts me is remembering and thanking God for the most incredible plan that He has laid out for us. He has shown us this incredible plan thru the most beautiful and full blessings that He has given us since we've been married. He has used Yazoo City as a source of constant blessing for us. Thank You!

if you're the type, read over some of these favorite verses of mine. reflect on them. i pray you find encouragement!

Laden with guilt and full of fears,

I fly to thee, my Lord,

And not a glimpse of hope appears,

But in Thy written Word.

The volumes of my Father's grace

Does all my griefs assuage

Here I behold my Savior's face

in every page.

All that feeds my busy pride

Cast it ever more aside.

Bid my will to Thine submit,

Lay me humbly at Thy feet.

Thy mercy my God is the theme of my song

The joy of my heart, and the boast of my tongue

Thy free grace alone, from the first to the last,

Hath won my affections, and bound my soul fast.

a few thoughts...

• school starts today! i'm a little nervous, but excited nonetheless. i've got to get better at being organized. Dane thinks i'm the least organized person in the world, which is somewhat true. i'm gonna show him!

• i can't WAIT for fall! i love sweater weather and chili/soup weather and bonfire weather! ahh!

• guess what i'm doing on saturday? yes, that's right. being the best/coolest wife ever. i will be sitting in a hunter's education class from 9:00am to 7:00pm. this better be worth it. this is my goal:

• here are some random pictures i wanted to share with y'all! look at my Bea. she has grown so much! and is even bigger now than when i took this picture!

•  i love this picture of Dane. caught him in a moment of happiness! he loves driving that tractor.

•  some creatures down by our pond

• last thing: i wanted to share with y'all two slideshows from events i took pictures at this summer.  the first is for our VBS at first pres, and the second is from our st. louis mission trip! both videos are long (8-9 minutes), but they're so sweet and wonderful. our church has been such a blessing for Dane and I, more than we ever could've imagined. God's plan for us has abounded with grace and mercy. 

 thanks for continuing to read. i'm going to try and get better at this, but i just don't see it in the cards anytime soon due to school. but ya never know! love you all.

st. louis mission trip

this is sadly delayed! i'm finally going to put pictures up from the mission trip i went on with our church youth group in june! 

we went to st. louis and worked with new city fellowship in reaching out to those that live in the inner city.  i learned so much about loving "the orphan and the widow".  many people that we loved on (unprivileged children, muslim women learning to speak english, those in a government-funded retirement/nursing home, the dangerous neighborhoods, etc.) do not experience much care/security/love/protection besides that of this church and their mission.  it was such an eye-opening trip. here are some pictures of our youth and of the kids we loved on all week!

 our nightly group time. one of my favorite times of the week

 our fearless, yet slightly odd leader!

 this was the girl i tutored all week, Danielle!

 quiet coyote!

some of the greatest kids i know!

Quick Update

So...

i'm officially bad at blogging. i have put it off! this is going to be a quick update!

i just got home about an hour ago from the neshoba county fair. ohhh man. long but awesomely fun week! i missed my bea though. and my bed. i miss philly already. i love that place.

i have so many pictures to upload, including st louis mission trip pics! i'm procrastinating at the moment.

okay so let me tell you an incredibly yummy secret i learned this week. ok, i'm a fan of chocolate. a BIG fan. i love chocolate sheet cakes (yummy...esp poineer woman's). but i had one this week that had a little cinnamon in it... oh my gosh did it change everything! it was 10x better! try it!

so many friends are getting married/pregnant these days. it's so exciting and beautiful to be at this point in life! lately, D and I's marriage has been growing a lot. i am loving him more and more each day, and i feel like the longer we're married the more we laugh. what a great sign! praying for all of you who are in this stage of life. it's wonderful and it's hard.

school starts back august 24th. i.am.so.excited. i actually miss school (huhh?). cant wait to get back in it again!

anyways, will update with pictures and hopefully stories some time this week! love love love.

headed out...

hey everyone!

i'm leaving at 8 am to chaperone a youth mission trip to st. louis for the week. i'm sad to be leaving Dane but so excited to see what God has in store. 

please be praying for elliott, ramona, me, and the fourteen youth that are going. also, pray for john mark gilder, one of our youth that was in a serious car accident yesterday morning. pray that the Lord moves and His will is done.

thanks for the prayers!

see you next saturday :)

we made it!

well, i'm quite late on this post, but i wanted to acknowledge our 'one year anniversary' post! i wanted to share a few pictures at random and from our wedding day. 

i can't believe i'm married, but less i've been married for over a year and 1 month now. i wasn't that girl who came to college looking for 'the one'. i wanted to do my own thing, go off and get a few degrees, move out west, have fun fun fun, and maybe settle down when i'm in my 30's. nope, God had a heck of a bigger plan for me than that. obviously my needs came before my wants! couldn't have planned it better myself :)

my junior year of college i was at an RUF halloween party at john clemmer's house. it was a thursday night in October. i was sitting by the fire talking to some of my friends and i began talking to the guy next to me. we had a good conversation and ended up going with a big group to a haunted house. we didn't get in (thank the Lord, i HATEEEEE haunted houses). 

it wasn't until the next semester, in january, that i even saw him again. apparently he had an eye out for me (haha Dane i hope this isn't embarrassing you). we got 'set up' (thanks to jessica akin and john harrelson) in the first round of the dating game. we went bowling with another team. later, Dane would tell me how awkward that night was. i thought it was fun! whatev. and slowly but surely, a relationship came from that. not gonna lie, it took me a while to figure out what my feelings for Dane were. but when i figured them out, holy moly it was over from there. he stole my heart and won me over. he tricked me! haha kidding! i knew what i was in for. and look at us now. a year of marriage, 5 moves, a small town, a wonderful church, and a big ole puppy later, we're here. and we're happy. and we're 'making it'. can't believe the dreaded FIRST YEAR OF MARRIAGE is checked off the list. have we had an awesome year? yes. have we fought? duh. have we messed up and had to apologize? constantly. have i fallen even more in love with dane? YUP! have i embarrassed him in the post? absolutely.

enjoy the pics!

 scott and wellons' wedding!

 not so cute family portrait. haha

 the night he asked me to marry him. this is the exact fire we sat around when we first met and the exact fire he proposed that began the rest of our lives.

 my first family trip with the DeWeese's. it was a blast.

 ok this is literally one of the first few times we hung out. dane asked me to go to the RUF barn dance with him. haha!

 the night we got engaged. bahaha mere and lewis crack me up.

 the big day :)

the end :)

to another year!

love you Dane.